XT Driver & BIOS Update Notes

[Steve S]

I thought it might be helpful to start a thread on Latitude XT driver and BIOS updates because sometimes these things don't go quite as smoothly as one would wish.

I finished installing the A02 BIOS update and four other driver updates yesterday and there are a couple of comments to share:

BIOS Update A02: This update was uneventful. Unlike some flash utilities, this one just shows a plain screen with no crawl bar or progress indication whatsoever... so you just have to wait in hope and fear. The updates takes several minutes and then the XT automatically reboots. So far, everything seems normal; no problems to report...

ATI Radion Video Driver Update: This update took a fairly long time to complete, with one lengthy period where it didn't seem like anything was happening at all. However, it did complete. When I rebooted, I got a dialogue box saying that errors had been reported. When I checked the installation log, everything was successful except the driver itself. Great. However, everything seems to be working OK...

N-trig Driver Update: Again, an uneventful install. Everything works, but in the Device Manager, all the N-trig property windows show a version number of 1.23, not 1.44...?!??

Dell Quickset Driver Update: This one stalled because a few services were running. I think there were four; Quickset itself, Explorer and two others. I hit "Retry" and that got the last two, but I ended up having to exit Quickset in the System Tray and shut down Explorer in the Task Manager processes list. After that, the update completed successfully.

Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation Driver Update: This one installed uneventfully. Good thing, too, because I have no idea what it is or what it does!

[Ch00k]

My "Driver Version" for n-trig is also 1.23. I hunted around Dell's site, and the contents of the driver package exe, and found that the update is for "tray application version 1.23", so I am hoping this was just bad wording on n-trig's part, and the version number they are showing is not the true driver version.

[Steve S]

<<...I am hoping this was just bad wording on n-trig's part, and the version number they are showing is not the true driver version...>>

Ch00k: More or less my thought, too. I also wondered if they simply forgot to update theentry that's shown in the Device Manager's dialogue boxes...?

[Rob Bushway]

The only hiccup I ran in to on the N-Trig update as that I the install routine uninstalled the N-Trig utility before I could run it again to install the new update - It didn't install automatically after uninstall.

[Steve S]

I just received a tech note that a couple of new updates have been posted (~23Apr08). I'll investigate this later today and report back...

<> System Utilities
<> IDE / EIDEEdited by: Steve S

[everbrave]

I have installed the ATI driver from their website. It works fine most of the time (including rotation). However, I occasionally get BSD (with memory dupm and restart).

What is your experince with the latest driver from Dell?
Edited by: everbrave

[Steve S]

<<...I just received a tech note that a couple of new updates...>>

...OK. Just got off the phone with a Dell Tech after discussing the need for the IDE / EIDE update. Here's the box score:

<> Utilities Update: This is a small update that installs an "improved Dell Power Saver scheme" which overwrites the existing Vista scheme. The update installed quickly and uneventfully. Time may tell if it makes any noticeable difference in the operating life of the battery.

<> IDE / EIDE Update: This is an update for Samsung 80 and 120 GB, 5400 rpm 1.8 inch PATA HD's. It updates the firmware to reduce "clicking" noises that the HD's make at elevated temperatures. However, I have an SSD in my XT, and this update doesn't look like it would be applicable to my machine, so I decided to call Tech Support and ask. The Tech agreed. Therefore, I won't be installing this particular update in my XT...

[Ch00k]

Well, I installed the power scheme the other night, and that worked fine, though I can't say i've run on battery since, and I dare say I wouldn't notice the difference anyway, i'm not that kind of user.

The hard disk update, well, lets just say I have a call to place to Dell today, and expect a visit from a technician soon. Thanks to SugarSync I haven't lost *all* of my data, only most

Funnily enough the hard disk has been playing up a little recently, and I was ready to blame sugarsync for it, as that was the last thing I installed, but I'm willing to reserve judgement since it has saved me weeks of work.

[Ch00k]

Well, new hard drive is installed and i'm up to update 44 of 54 for Vista. What fun.

[everbrave]

I thought this post might be of an interest for this topic
http://www.gottabemobile.com/forum/f...s.asp?TID=5612